Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Guest Post: The Genesis of Alpha Goddess by Amalie Howard

Interestingly enough, the
original idea for Alpha Goddess was inspired by Greek mythology—specifically, the
Greek tale of Hades and Persephone. That was the story that really set Alpha Goddess into motion. I’ve always
loved that particular myth because I enjoy dark romance. For me, reading about
the god of the Underworld kidnapping the goddess of spring because he’s in love
with her and knows that he could never measure up to her mother, Demeter, is
like utter brain candy. It’s pretty hot in a dark, desperate kind of way.

As a child, I was also
lucky to grow up with a different kind of mythology, one steeped in East Indian
culture. Inspired by the story of Persephone, I wanted to try something
different, as in something radically different. What if I could tie classic
Greek mythology into the Indian stories I’d heard as a child? What if these
gods and goddesses somehow all knew each other? That got my mind whirring and
the concept percolating.

In the beginning, my
idea was to bridge Greek mythology and Indian mythology, and it was quite an ambitious
one. After a while, finding enough neutral or common ground became difficult. Imagine
incorporating two entirely different pantheons of hundreds of Greek gods and
goddess with millions of Indian ones! It became too unwieldy to make a marriage
between two disparate mythologies, no matter my earlier intentions. It just
didn’t make sense and the world building would have been way too complicated.
So instead, I found myself inspired by another tale of star-crossed love, this
time on the Indian side—the epic tale of Rama and Sita—and decided to focus on
that mythology as the foundation for my story.

For those who aren’t
familiar with the Ramayana, it’s a timeless Indian love story in which prince
Rama and his wife Sita were tricked from the throne and sent into exile, where
they lived in the forest. Similar to Persephone, Sita was stolen away by a
ten-headed demon, Ravana, who tried to convince her to marry him. However, her
love Rama came to save her, battling the demon to the death with the help of
the monkey-king, Hanuman. After the birth of their two sons, Sita’s chastity
remained in question after her time spent with Ravana, and she was forced to
walk through fire to prove her purity. She returned to mother earth, never to
be seen again.

My re-imagining of
Rama and Sita’s epic love story takes place with a fictional account of how
they find each other in another future lifetime—this time within the world of Alpha Goddess in a contemporary setting.
I wanted to remain true to several key elements of the mythology; however, I
also wanted to use my creative license to really make this story my own. Hence
the re-imagining and not re-telling:
Rama becomes Devendra and Sita becomes Serjana, and they are thrown into a
present-day setting where Sera has no idea who or what she is. In a world
fissured by gods and demons, by good and evil, can these two star-crossed
lovers find each other, and save the mortal realm in the process? Or will they
become undermined by friends, family and evolving loyalties?

I can honestly say that I haven't heard of an Indian mythology retelling (still seems like a retelling to me, haha), and that's honestly surprising. There's so much mythology in that culture that I would have assumed there would be plenty of books about it! Nonetheless, I love this concept, and love how the author was able to write a book about it. I'll definitely have to check this one out!

Wow the combining of Indian and Greek mythology sounded awesome, but I understand why this seemed really difficult to do. I do love the inspiration behind your book now, I don't think I've come across anything quite like it. Also it brings back memories of watching the school plays of Rama and Sita! Thanks for sharing a great post with us! :)

I'm not a very big fan of mythology, but I feel like the majority of mythology I've read is either Greek mythology or some style similar to that. I've never heard of Indian mythology, nor have I ever read an Indian mythology retelling, so the concept definitely sounds cool :) Thanks for sharing! <33

I love the idea of bridging Greek mythology and Indian mythology, even if it did prove to be too ambitious in the end! Still, a re-imagining of Rama and Sita's story sounds like a refreshing idea in YA - definitely not something I've come across myself, at least, and now I'm super curious about this book. Thanks so much for sharing! :)

Oh, we have a similar version of Ramayana here, only slightly different name Rama and Sinta. It's so cool to try to combine two different myths! I love the story of Hades and Persephone, which is kind of dark and twisted in a way. ;) This guest post makes me really curious about the book! Thank you for sharing with us, Amalie and Lauren! :)

I'm not too keen on Indian mythology, but I absolutely LOVE Greek mythology! (Percy Jackson, anyone?) But this sounds AMAZING and so creative! Definitely going to have to try it out at some point; it's great to see original stories / books, right? ;)